The Chesterton
Stormwater Management Board has taken under advisement the Stormwater
Utility’s proposed 2019 budget.

That budget
projects total revenues of $520,850; and revenues for operation of $508,850.

Projected expenses:
$281,335 for salaries and wages; $139,813 for employee pensions and
benefits; $9,550 for materials and supplies; $15,500 for contractual
services; $7,500 for transportation; $1,500 for MS4 public education;
$13,250 for miscellaneous expenses; and $99,362 for total debt service.

Total expenses:
$567,810, with a projected net deficit of $58,960.

Stormwater Utility
Superintendent Mark O’Dell noted a couple of things about the budget. First,
the Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Health Savings Account line
item--$86,406--“took a hit on the budget,” inasmuch as the Town Council
asked the Utility to “pay 100 percent of it.”

Second, the budget
does not currently include 2-percent raises for Utility employees, as the
Town Council has not yet formally adopted the townwide 2019 budget.

Third, O’Dell
included $10,000 in the Contractual Services line item in the event the
board wants to pursue a rate study next year.

Finally, the
relatively small $1,500 earmark for MS4 Public Education reflects the fact
that the Stormwater Utility several years invested in a variety of outreach
materials which MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala is still using. “Outreach is
winding down,” O’Dell said.

East Porter Ave.
Culvert Project

In other business,
O’Dell reported that work on the box culvert over Sand Creek is all but
completed and that East Porter Ave. between Dickinson Road and 250E has been
re-opened to traffic.

The “bridge is
open, the stripes are down, and the speed limit sign is up,” O’Dell said.

The total
approximate cost of the project: $619,000, some $253,000 of which was funded
through a Community Crossings state infrastructure grant.

Several years ago
the town discovered two things about the old bridge: that it was crumbling
and in need of replacement; and that responsibility for the project was not
in fact the Porter County Highway Department’s but the town’s own, because
the bridge’s length fell just short of the span which would have put it in
the Highway Department’s inventory.

September in Review

In September the
Stormwater Utility ran a surplus of $8,033 and in the year-to-date is
running a surplus of $148,347.